Edmund Dixon and Marva Weinberg - Married July 2015
Marva and Edmund met through DT Heart & Soul on 19 October 2013 and began building a great friendship from Chicago to South Carolina. After dating for a year, they were engaged on 27 March 2015 and married on 19 July 2015.
Edmund and Marva: We met after both losing the love of our lives to illness. Edmund has been a disciple for 24 years and was married for seven years, and Marva has been a disciple for 21 years and was married for fourteen years. Unknown to each other, we each prayed that if we found love again, it would be to someone who had experienced the same thing.
Marva: Edmund was a little more adventurous than I, in that he began his quest for love a year after his wife had passed. However, I wasn’t convinced love would come my way until much later. We both signed up for DT Heart and Soul after getting much input from close friends in our lives. I joke with Edmund all the time about how the money he spent to join the website was the best investment he has ever made, because I joined for free after receiving an email for a 30 day trial and met him two days later. We talked for the first time on October 19, 2013 and have never stopped talking since. The twist to our relationship is that we lived over 800 miles away from each other. We met for the first time in December 2013 and weren’t sure where this visit would lead and so we continued building our friendship.
Edmund: Marva still wasn’t sure if a relationship was what she really wanted. However, God continued to prune her heart and helped her work through her fears. I on the other hand was learning more about myself, and about areas God wanted me to grow in. Sometimes you think because you did this once, you have it all figured out. After seeking much advice, I decided to visit South Carolina on May 24, 2014, and asked Marva to steady date on a picnic with her teenage son.
Marva: I thought, either this man is extremely confident in his relationship with God, or he’s crazy! After saying yes, our relationship has been tested but has also been a testimony to God’s sovereign grace and mercy, because he allowed us to have a second chance at love.
Our engagement: We decided to continue to visit each other every other month throughout our dating relationship. Dating long-distance can be a challenging yet beautiful experience. We have tried to make encouraging one another through God’s word, prayer, visits, phone calls, Skype and unexpected gifts the hallmark of our dating relationship.
My plan, if I ever got engaged, was to have Edmund living in the same city before he asked me to marry him. But God’s timeline intervened once again. Edmund had planned to visit Columbia in April 2015 to encourage my son for his birthday, but after not seeing him since New Year’s Day, I decided to plan an unscheduled visit Chicago in March. I thought this would just be a bonus trip. However, Edmund decided this would be the time to ask me to be his wife.
Returning back to the restaurant of our first date, Edmund surprised me with the most beautiful engagement proposal and ring. The Bible says in Psalms 37:4, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” God has truly granted us both our desire to marry again, and we are delighted to spend the rest of our lives as a family bringing honor and glory to him. We encourage brothers and sisters to seek much advice, keep God first, and never be afraid of building friendships. Watch God work!
